18 Americans Just Repatriated after Hantavirus Exposure. Here's Everything We Know.

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]You can guarantee no American will catch this virus from these returning passengers.

[00:00:07]There are no guarantees in life. We're putting as many measures in place as possible to ensure that people are safe and healthy and we keep the community safe and healthy as well. In case it wasn't clear, he's talking about the hantavirus. And speaking of that, 18 Americans are back on US soil after being exposed to the hantavirus on that cruise ship. 16 of them are in Nebraska and two are in Georgia. So, I have a lot more to tell you about them, which I'm going to get to in a second. But, there are also a lot of questions being raised about what's really going on and how the US government is handling this. And of course, this is also giving a lot of people some COVID-19 flashbacks. So, I'm going to get into all of that in this video. It is a long one because today we got a lot of new information. So, let's start with this. Officials from the US Health and Human Services Department, CDC, and the National Quarantine Center in Nebraska addressed the media about hantavirus. And then, separately, President Trump and HHS Secretary RFK Jr. also talked about it. First, officials with Health and Human Services reiterated the Trump administration position that in the United States this hantavirus issue is under control. Let me be crystal clear, the risk of hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low.

[00:01:14]The Andes variant of this virus does not spread easily and it requires prolonged close contact with someone who is already symptomatic. So, what's considered close contact?

[00:01:24]>> It typically we're talking about exposure to specifically to body bodily fluids and then that could include things like saliva. So, if you're sharing eating utensils, um kissing, touching, those type of things. It can also mean uh just being really, really close to that to that person for a fairly long period of time. So, we're we're calling that six right now, six feet for at least a cumulative number of 15 minutes. I want to be clear, there's nothing magical about six feet. It's not a force field, but it's a rough number that gives us a sense of how close somebody has been. 15 minutes, again, it's a bit arbitrary, but it again gives some sense of how close someone has been. Now, about those questions being raised about the US government's handling of this virus. Some medical experts say the US government isn't being aggressive enough when it comes to hantavirus and others are questioning why it took the US government so long to issue a hantavirus alert in the US days after the World Health Organization issued their alert. That is a criticism the Trump administration says is irrelevant.

[00:02:19]>> We have this under control and we're not worried about it. But the CDC took four days after the WHO issued its, you know, alert. Why was it?

[00:02:30]Why why did it take the US four days to issue an alert? It is not true. We As soon as we determined that the virus was out there, we issued an alert. But the alert means nothing because all the people are I saw the alert and give me give me a problem. They acted very very quickly. Okay, now let's talk about these 18 people who were repatriated today and all about those other people who we know were on that cruise ship but were already allowed to go home. What's up with all of them?

[00:02:59]Well, according to the University of Nebraska, which is the home of the National Quarantine Center, 16 travelers are under hantavirus observation. They range in age from late 20s to early 80s.

[00:03:10]One is being held in the biocontainment center. That person tested both positive and negative for hantavirus but that test was taken outside the United States and doctors at the center say today that person is not showing symptoms. The other 15 are in the quarantine center in Nebraska, which is a facility for people who may have been exposed to hantavirus but are not showing symptoms of the virus. In fact, one of them is Jake Rosen. He posted this selfie in his quarantine room just a few hours ago from the National Quarantine Center in Nebraska. He said he is feeling well.

[00:03:41]The other two people who were repatriated to the US were traveling together and they are now being treated at Emory University in Atlanta. One of them is showing symptoms of hantavirus and is being held in Emory's biocontainment unit. The other is under quarantine. HHS and CDC say there is an up to 42-day incubation period for the ND strain of the hantavirus, which is what we're talking about here. Doctors say that 42-day clock starts after the last exposure with someone who is showing symptoms, or after someone has been in close contact with someone else who has the disease. Now, I'm sure you're wondering, are these 18 people going to stay in that quarantine center in Nebraska or Atlanta for those 42 days?

[00:04:18]Not necessarily. Government officials said it is their choice if they want to leave the quarantine center and go home to quarantine, but there are some caveats to that.

[00:04:27]>> There's going to be an individualized decision plan for them to determine if it makes more sense for them to complete their 42-day monitoring period at home.

[00:04:35]And there's going to be a couple of things that go into to to that decision.

[00:04:38]First and foremost, do they remain symptom-free? But then also, do they have all the structures and support to be able to be continue that period at home, making sure that that they can be able to isolate in in a separate part of of structure from anybody else, make sure that they can contact their health department, get tested if necessary if they develop symptoms, or if they need a higher level of medical care that that's available to them. So, there's a range of structures that need to be in place before anyone would be transferred to their their home, and that would be done in in close coordination with the health department in the states that would be receiving them. Ultimately though, will it be their decision?

[00:05:14]Yes, we want to do this in the most in the least restrictive way possible that is still safe, that protects the health and safety both of the passengers and their communities. But what about all those other people who we know were on that ship and are already back at home?

[00:05:26]The US government says they know exactly who they are. There's been contact made with all of those passengers who who returned. The state health departments have been monitoring them on a daily basis, including symptoms and temp- temperature checks. They have plans in place to make sure that they can isolate effectively in their home should they develop symptoms. If they are developing symptoms, they have ways to get tested safely, and to make sure that they're not going to spread it to others. For those of you who are having COVID-19 flashbacks, I just want to point out one major difference here. COVID-19 was a novel virus, meaning it was brand new.

[00:05:58]We'd never seen it before. So, health officials were sort of flying blind, especially at the beginning, when it came to how COVID-19 was contracted and how it was spread. But, the Andes strain of the hantavirus is very different.

[00:06:10]>> I want to emphasize this is not a brand new virus. This is a virus, even though it's new to many of us, it is a virus that has been known for decades now, and there's been outbreaks that have been dealt with in other countries and even here in the United States. This is not the first time we've had Andes virus in the United States before. Now, at the beginning of this video, you heard that official from Health and Human Services say, "There are no guarantees that this hantavirus won't spread to the community, but that the Trump administration is going to do whatever they can to prevent that from happening." President Trump today said, "It should be fine."

[00:06:41]Uh you know, I hope it's fine. All I can do is everything that a president can do, which is some which is actually somewhat limited, but but uh it seems like it is not uh easy to spread.

[00:06:56]In fact, it's in certain ways very hard to spread. It's been We've We've lived with it for years, many years, and we think we're in very good shape.

[00:07:05]We're very careful. So, if you want to read more about the symptoms of hantavirus or how to reduce your risk of exposure, I'm going to email all that information out to you tonight in my Facts HQ email, which of course is free.

[00:07:13]So, make sure you sign yourself up.